Was it just us, or did September fly by a little faster than usual? Well, our monthly playlist is doing its best to keep up. This month we’re looking at artists who refuse to stay in their lane, from Len Lucci's genre-blurring return and Kim Ximya's cerebral, club-ready experimentation to Helena Gao's bilingual debut that feels especially close to home. Elsewhere, Anderson .Paak and Cordae offer a relive, slow down and savour the good days, while YAO turns its attention to identity, heritage and the meaning of home. Closer to home, our September cover star Hael Husaini teams up with Mimifly on "Garah", a playful duet about the complications of modern romance. Whether you're looking for something to soundtrack the workday, the commute home or a weekend spent doing absolutely nothing, here are 10 releases to add to your rotation as we head into the final stretch of the year.
After a two-year hiatus following his breakout into an international audience, British rapper Len Lucci returns with goldenboy. Now working under the name Len Lucci, the album feels like a snapshot of where the UK underground is heading, pulling together Afrobeats, UK jerk and garage into one slightly chaotic mix. It’s an odd combination on paper, though that collision is part of what makes the record feel current. One of the standout moments is “backstage”, which samples M.I.A.’s 2007 track “Bad Girls”, giving another summer anthem a new life. There’s a loose, genre-hopping quality throughout the album that makes it feel distinctly underground rather than neatly packaged. Two years away seems to have given Len Lucci plenty of time to figure out where he wants to take things next.
Without trying to wrap itself in anything too conceptual, TIDAL, sunOceanus’ latest EP, takes its name from the ebb and flow of human emotions. It explores how our feelings shift with time and circumstance, while keeping the focus firmly on the music itself. In many ways, it serves as a callback to the artist’s first EP, Back Then, when the motivation was simply to make good songs. Across the EP, he moves between emotional ballads, rapping over contemporary Chinese hip-hop beats and amapiano-inflected production. There’s no grand statement to unpack here, just an artist enjoying the process of making something that feels good to him.
What happens when Japanese rock and hip-hop come together for a song about home? You get For Okinawa, a collaboration that brings together Awich, CHICO CARLITO, ONE OK ROCK and Paledusk under the collective YAO. More than a meeting of musical heavyweights, the single draws from Okinawa’s history, culture and the scars left by its past. Produced by Paledusk’s DAIDAI, with ONE OK ROCK’s Taka among its composers, the track layers rap verses with the raw energy of rock to deliver a message of peace and unity. It’s a cue to what the music can do more than soundtrack a moment. It can also serve as a sounding board for those whose voices often go unheard.
Kim Ximya has never been one to follow the crowd, and Dogma finds the South Korean rapper continuing to carve out his own lane. The 10-track album blends bass-heavy club beats with industrial noise, footwork rhythms and jazz-infused samples, creating a sound that's equal parts chaotic and captivating. Beneath the experimentation, Dogma is surprisingly introspective, with tracks like Me, Life, and Nothing Else reflecting on growth, change and the fleeting nature of life, while Buddhist ideas quietly shape some of its deeper moments. It's a thoughtful listen wrapped in futuristic productions, proving that a night out and an existential crisis can, in fact, coexist on the same playlist.
For those of us who grew up with the legacy of colonialism, Gao Dan Dan, Helena Gao’s debut album, feels particularly resonant. Her effortless movement between English and Mandarin within the same song captures a linguistic duality that many in the Chinese diaspora will recognise. In Malaysia, where the Chinese community spans a spectrum of linguistic identities, from the more Anglicised to those who remain closely connected to Mandarin, this interplay feels like it was made for us. Musically, the album flirts with hyperpop and Eurotrash, pairing electronic production with simple Mandarin lyrics that feel almost disarming against the maximalist arrangements. It's refreshing to hear an artist navigate both languages with such finesse. Helena makes a compelling case for a kind of cultural fluency that feels familiar to those who have grown up straddling two worlds.
With Drake’s triple release just a few months behind us, you’d think fans might need some time to digest the new material before their appetite kicks in again. Apparently, Drake had other plans. The rapper surprised fans with a livestream aptly titled FOMO, featuring an anthology of music videos, alongside 10 unreleased tracks and a handful of songs from his earlier releases this year. As with any unreleased material, it could be years before fans get to hear the full tracks. However, MISS MY DAWG, which debuted during the livestream before resurfacing on Yeat’s latest album just days later, offers some hope that the rest might see an official release sooner than expected. For all the music Drake has put out this year, his vault still seems like a never-ending abyss of heaters.
Some days call for a little gratitude, a good groove and absolutely no unnecessary drama. Anderson .Paak and Cordae bring exactly that on A Good Day, a feel-good hip-hop single that reunites the pair ahead of their joint album Heavy Is The Crown. Built around a sample of Bill Withers’ Lovely Day, the track also pays tribute to Ice Cube’s It Was a Good Day, giving the song a nostalgic edge without it feeling dated. The accompanying music video takes the throwback mood further with a playful nod to the cult comedy Friday, directed by Dave Meyers. Consider it a small hint to appreciate the good stuff when it comes along and maybe leave the work emails alone for once.
Trying to put Son Lux into a neat musical box has never been particularly useful. The experimental trio returns with Out Into, a nine-track album that continues its exploration of the space between electronic sound and raw emotion. Its title track, Out Into Us, also inspired a video installation created in collaboration with director Alex Cook, extending the music into a more immersive visual experience rather than an uninspiring music video that disappears into the worldwide void. It feels fitting for a band whose work has always resisted easy categorisation. Put this one on when background music simply won’t cut it.
Amid his summer performance run, Yeat seems to have found one more excuse to keep the season going with Cocoon. The seven-track EP arrives with a new visual identity, with Yeat even updating the artwork of his previous albums to match. Musically, Cocoon sees him return to the distorted, bass-heavy production and familiar vocal inflections that first built his following. While the EP doesn’t stray too far from what we’ve come to expect from him, I’m quite fond of it, particularly its more immediate, high-energy moments. The Drake-assisted MISS MY DAWG, mentioned earlier, is a notable highlight, bringing the two artists together once again. At just under 17 minutes, Cocoon makes for a fairly easy listen, and if that’s all that’s left of summer, perhaps it’s all the excuse I need to end the season on a high.
With our September cover star Hael Husaini leading the charge, Malaysian pop gets a welcome jolt of energy on Garah. Teaming up with Mimifly, Hael gets into the messier side of romance, from unspoken feelings to the uncertainty that comes with figuring out what your heart actually wants. The two play off each other effortlessly, with Hael handling the melodic moments while Mimifly brings a contrasting edge that gives the song its charm. Produced by Hael and Iqie Hugh, Garah keeps things light, playful and relatable, showing that when it comes to love, there are rarely any straightforward answers. Sometimes, it takes two voices to figure things out.
Esquire Malaysia
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